Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNew) April 26, 2015: No doubt
progressives and liberals are aware of the Christian right, the loose coalition
of American conservatives who stand opposed to legalized abortion in the first
trimester and to same-sex marriage. Certain people in the Christian right also
stand opposed to teaching evolutionary theory in public secondary education.

Of course all Christians, not just conservative Christians,
place a certain value on Christian the scriptures known as the canonical New
Testament.

In the English-speaking world, the most influential
translation of the entire Christian Bible is the King James Version (KJV) of
1611 with its oratorical English. The KJV is also known as the Authorized
Version (AV) because King James authorized a group of scholars to prepare it.

The oratorical English of the KJV resembled the oratorical
English of Shakespeare's plays. Together, Shakespeare's oratorical English and
the KJV's oratorical English exercised enormous influence over American
culture.

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No doubt their oratorical English resonated well against the
oratorical Greek of the Homeric epics, the ILIAD and the ODYSSEY, feature
speeches, just as Shakespeare's plays do.

Because Homeric Greek was the gold standard for Greek,
anybody who studied Greek well enough to become fluent in speaking and writing
it would have been familiar with Homeric Greek.

Almost all of the texts in the anthology of texts known as
the New Testament have come down to us in Koine Greek. (Basically, Koine Greek
is not as complex as the classical Greek of Plato's dialogues.)

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In the book THE HOMERIC EPICS AND THE GOSPEL OF MARK (2000),
Dennis R. MacDonald shows that even the anonymous (to us) author of the Gospel
of Mark was familiar with certain aspects of Homeric expression -- which shows that
the author had studied Greek. But the anonymous author of Mark was a Jew, just
as the historical Yeshua was.

But the historical Yeshua would have spoken Aramaic in his
public ministry to rural Jews, even though the four canonical gospels in Koine
Greek portray him as speaking Koine Greek to rural Jews.

To be sure, Koine Greek was emerging as another lingua
franca during the rule of the Roman Empire in the Jewish homeland -- another
lingua franca, that is, in addition to the established lingua franca known as
Aramaic. The ancient Jewish scriptures were written in Hebrew, and educated
Jews in the first century knew Hebrew. But the Jewish scriptures had been
translated into Greek. The Greek version is known as the Septuagint.

Now, the historical Yeshua has been described as preaching
and teaching in his public ministry. He reportedly used narrative proverbs
known as parables. In terms of the content of his public oratory, he was
engaging in what Aristotle describes as epideictic oratory -- oratory centered
on values. (In addition, he was reportedly a faith healer.)

But just how oratorical did the historical Yeshua's oral
preaching in Aramaic sound? Had he ever heard the oratorical speeches of the
Homeric epics, as the anonymous author of the Gospel of Mark probably had?

Just how oratorical did John the Dipper's preaching in
Aramaic sound?

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You see, public orators in the ancient world typically
practiced accentuating rhythmic patterns and sound effects in their speech so
that their sounded oratorical -- and memorable.

By contrast, President Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg
Address" does not sound oratorical, even though it is memorable.

In the book MR. LINCOLN'S T-MAILS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF HOW
ABRAHAM LINCOLN USED THE TELEGRAPH TO WIN THE CIVIL WAR (2006), Tom Wheeler
shows that Lincoln used the telegraph to send messages. No doubt this required
Lincoln to learn how to express his thought succinctly, as he does in the
"Gettysburg Address."

Thomas James Farrell is professor emeritus of writing studies at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). He started teaching at UMD in Fall 1987, and he retired from UMD at the end of May 2009. He was born in 1944. He holds three degrees from Saint Louis University (SLU): B.A. in English, 1966; M.A.(T) in English 1968; Ph.D.in higher education, 1974. On May 16, 1969, the editors of the SLU student newspaper named him Man of the Year, an honor customarily conferred on an administrator or a faculty member, not on a graduate student -- nor on a woman up to that time. He is the proud author of the book (more...)